Kings III 8:28-47

²⁸Yet, O Lord God of Israel, thou shalt look upon my petition, to hear the prayer which thy servant prays to thee in thy presence this day,

²⁹that thine eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place of which thou saidst, My name shall be there, to hear the prayer which thy servant prays at this place day and night.

³⁰And thou shalt hearken to the prayer of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall pray toward this place; and thou shalt hear in thy dwelling-place in heaven, and thou shalt do and be gracious.

³¹Whatsoever trespasses any one shall commit against his neighbour,—and if he shall take upon him an oath so that he should swear, and he shall come and make confession before thine altar in this house,

³²then shalt thou hear from heaven, and do, and thou shalt judge thy people Israel, that the wicked should be condemned, to recompense his way upon his head; and to justify the righteous, to give to him according to his righteousness.

³³When thy people Israel falls before enemies, because they shall sin against thee, and they shall return and confess to thy name, and they shall pray and supplicate in this house,

³⁴then shalt thou hear from heaven, and be gracious to the sins of thy people Israel, and thou shalt restore them to the land which thou gavest to their fathers.

³⁵When the heaven is restrained, and there is no rain, because they shall sin against thee, and they shall pray toward this place, and shall make confession to thy name, and shall turn from their sins when thou shalt have humbled them,

³⁶then thou shalt hear from heaven, and be merciful to the sins of thy servant and of thy people Israel; for thou shalt shew them the good way to walk in it, and thou shalt give rain upon the earth which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.

³⁷If there should be famine, if there should be death, because there should be blasting, locust, or if there be mildew, and if their enemy oppress them in any one of their cities, with regard to every calamity, every trouble,

³⁸every prayer, every supplication whatever shall be made by any man, as they shall know each the plague of his heart, and shall spread abroad his hands to this house,

³⁹then shalt thou hearken from heaven, out of thine established dwelling-place, and shalt be merciful, and shalt do, and recompense to every man according to his ways, as thou shalt know his heart, for thou alone knowest the heart of all the children of men:

⁴⁰that they may fear thee all the days that they live upon the land, which thou hast given to our fathers.

⁴¹And for the stranger who is not of thy people,

⁴²when they shall come and pray toward this place,

⁴³then shalt thou hear them from heaven, out of thine established dwelling-place, and thou shalt do according to all that the stranger shall call upon thee for, that all the nations may know thy name, and fear thee, as do thy people Israel, and may know that thy name has been called on this house which I have builded.

⁴⁴If it be that thy people shall go forth to war against their enemies in the way by which thou shalt turn them, and pray in the name of the Lord toward the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built to thy name,

⁴⁵then shalt thou hear from heaven their supplication and their prayer, and shalt execute judgment for them.

⁴⁶If it be that they shall sin against thee, (for there is not a man who will not sin,) and thou shalt bring them and deliver them up before their enemies, and they that take them captive shall carry them to a land far or near,

⁴⁷and they shall turn their hearts in the land whither they have been carried captives, and turn in the land of their sojourning, and supplicate thee, saying, We have sinned, we have done unjustly, we have transgressed,